2012 -- your racing highlights

Alright, boys and girls, it's the end of the year and we haven't done a super end-of-the-year What Did You Like/What Didn't You Like thread. Jp set one up quite admirably last year but unfortunately he's out measuring some new ASSHATS so I'm stepping in. Happy New Year!

Race Drive of the YearLewis Hamilton at the Cowboy Hat Grand Prix of Texas. One of those contests -- like Michael and Mika at the Nurburgring in 1998 -- that makes you glad you follow Formula One. Shame that by that stage he was an irrelevancy in the championship chase.(Runner-up: Moto2's Marc Marquez at the Japanese Grand Prix -- last to within sight of the leaders in a few corners, then the real work began.)

Bowling Ball of the YearNo contest eh?Runner-up: MotoGP star Jonathan Rea's impressive effort on the last lap of race 2 at Donington.Honourable mention: 2012's eternal bowling pin, the Nissan Deltawing. Exhibit A, courtesy of Kazuki Nakajima, and Exhibit B, from the humble Porsche 997 (check out the description on Highcroft's video... "forced into a roll" ).

Untrue conspiracy theory of the yearPicture the scene. Courtesy of Pastor Maldonado, Team Williams have just won their first Grand Prix since 2004. But there's a problem -- you see, the car was highly, and I mean heavily, illegal. Frank pulls in all the top mechanics, gets Patrick Head up on Skype from his desert island, even flicks through The Art of War by Adam Parr, and together they formulate a desperate plan. If Charlie finds all that stuff we put in the car -- the 3.5 litre engine, the throttle-blown diffuser, the beryllium seat-warmer -- we are so screwed! A junior engineer of Loki-ish aspect coughs nervously, and speaks up: "How about we, er, just burn the garage down? There'll be no e-evidence left then. We can blame it on a K-K-KERS malfunction." Silence, then the kind of applause that's usually reserved for VC-recipients or royal pregnancies. The plan was completed and Maldonado sneaked his asterisk-of-asterisks into the record books.

Course, technically it was Bruno Senna's car in the garage that caught fire. But y'know, just throwin' it out there. Don't believe what the man tells you.

(Runners-up, because they were actually true: Indycar team owners conspire to remove series CEO Randy Bernard in favour of Tony George, Brian Barnhart and the legions of eternal night; F1 puts on a race in a Middle Eastern military pseudo-dictatorship amid firebombs and hunger strikes, just to collect their $48m fee; MotoGP owners Dorna buy the championship of Edwards, Fogarty and the Ducati 916 as a negotiating ploy against Honda Racing Corporation.)

Jawdropper of a bowel-loosener of a title finaleIndycar Series at Fontana. Aside from the three-hour day-to-night contest on the limits of adhesion/Indycar's low-downforce aero spec, with proven nutjobs Sato and Tagliani inhabiting the leading group, this race featured a team of Penske mechanics changing the whole rear end of Will Power's crashed Dallara, just so he could get back out and run the laps needed to take 2 points away from Ernesto Viso's stricken car.(Runners-up: F1's dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix; WSBK's Magny-Cours round, culminating Tom Sykes's unsuccessful -- just -- and deeply weird title bid.Honourable mention: Bianchi vs. Frijns at the last round of the World Series by Renault. If only because the number of people offering an opinion on the collision probably vastly outnumbered Eurosport's own viewing figures. If only we had a way of monetizing these malcontents.)

Jacques Villeneuve's Busy Year, in association with the Where Is Jacques Villeneuve? threadJanuary: Accuse Alain Prost of rigging the Trophee Andros ice racing series.June: Receive death threats from protesting Montreal students.Later in June: Receive death threats from fans of GoDaddy's web hosting service.August: Nearly win home town Nationwide race for Roger's NASCAR outfit.July-August: In the opposites-land of the Antipodes, have a totally uneventful stint in V8 Supercars filling in for Greg Murphy.

Part Two of Risil's awards are coming up later. In the meantime I advise you all to contribute to this thread so I don't look really unpopular or anything.

Best race of the yearFor this I could've easily picked ALMS Road America and it's INSANE FINISH (or Le Mans as it is the single biggest highlight of the year no matter what happens on and off the track), but in the end it was the Mosport ALMS round. It was a very cozy summer's night here, one of the few days it didn't rain menacingly in July, and the race itself was superb - the GT battle during the last laps between Corvette and ESM was great as usual (too bad Lizards were disqualified though) but actually it was the P2 catfight between Conquest and Level 5 that really made it special!! That sprint on the Mario andretti straight was just awesome. I may not have a lot of respect for mr Tucker outside racing but that weekend was brutal from him. Overall, a very enjoyable weekend of racing

Best overtake of the yearToyota's pass of the Audi for the lead of Le Mans just seconds before Davidson's incident on the other side of the track. Great and exciting move, not sure if it really was the greatest pass of the year but itt was the one that came to my mind first.

Stupidest brainfart of the yearThis goes for the person who decided that Alfredo Nin was -again- the perfect commentator for SCCA Trans-Am. Dear god! This "hilarious" Dominican does voiceover for the (horribly edited and constructed) race highlights and screams like a retarded horse when someone makes a pass - dunno who because it's not explained - and then imitates some funny noises that are about as funny as filling tax forms for your swedish grandmother who despises you"And we take a look again, at what was the start of the race, onboard car number 23, driven by the lady, the WOMAN, Amy Ruman, CHIP CHIP CHIP CHIP CHIP"

Weirdest (/stupidest) concept of the yearJoker laps, reference lap times, pit penalties, ludicrous pre/post session BoP adjustments and all the other BS we saw at Dubai 24 hours - seriously what the **** was going on with that crap???

Incident of the yearI don't know, I guess one one of the spectacular multi car crashes in either CTSCC Barber or Road America could take this up? Too many to think of! Or one of the NASCAR wrecks on superspeedways, but those ones fade away from my memory too quickly. The Montoya fuel incident at Daytona was... interesting for sure but not really as spectacular as people make it sound. So I can't really decide.

The most annoying single moment of the yearDarren Cox interviews on RLM, Eurosport and other sources during the LM weekend:"You know we want to make things little differently here at NISSAN, you know my daughter said that the NISSAN Deltawing is such a neat looking kit, you know it makes perfect sense for NISSAN to showcase this groundbreaking techonology with the Deltawing, you know NISSAN has really upped it's game with this event and with NISSAN Deltawing we can bring so many new fans and even people from outside motorsports in, you know as soon as we at NISSAN saw what Deltawing was aiming to archieve we immediately knew that it would be the perfect partnership opportunity for NISSAN and as you can see from the feedback we've received it was the right choice, you know along with the NISSAN Academy and NISSAN LMP2 engine deal the NISSAN Deltawing really helps us to market our brand on global scale, you know NISSAN has always been about something that is not traditional because we don't wanna be the ones that just do it the usual way and that's why NISSAN is here with Deltawing" etc repeat repeat repeat *coffee break and back* repeat repeat again

The most disappointing single moment of the yearFIA green lights the Grand Prix of Bahrain and no-one dares to do anything about it

Disappointment of the yearBarrichello's performance in IndyCar, I mean I guess it was okayish overall and driving for a mediocre team like KV Racing certainly didn't help the cause, but it was still sad to see it go the way it did. Same with the retirement

Team of the year: Rebellion Racing
Manufacturer of the year: Ferrari
Driver of the year: Ryan Dalziel
The best non-racing related archievement by a driver: Zanardi wins olympic gold
Weirdest career exit: Shane van Gisbergen quits V8 Supercars at 23
Weirdest career comeback: Tommy Kendall
The driver who suddenly lost all talent: Ricky Taylor
The driver you didn't wanna have as your team mate: Yvan Muller
The driver with best humour: James Hinchcliffe
The driver who suddenly didn't crash so much anymore for some reason: EJ Viso
Oops I did it again: Will Power
Stupidest suggestion by Uncle Bernard: Let's have French GP on the same weekend as Le Mans
Shocking news of the year: Merger of the ALMS and Grand-Am
Saddest news of the year: Peugeot pulls out of sportscar racing
Lamest news of the year: Every possible PR piece said by Christian Horner
Biggest improvement since 2011: The look department of the Daytona Prototypes (obviously from the inside they're still as pathetic as the DPG2s)
Lowest improvement since 2011: Lotus Evora GTE
The biggest public relations gainer of the year: NISSAN Deltawing
The biggest re-badger of the year: Lotus
The most impressive stock car win on oval: Gerhart starts the ARCA Daytona round from 42th place and wins, insane draft during the last lap
The most boring race: Indian Grand Prix
The most boring series: DTM
The most pathetic manufacturer effort: Lotus engines in Indycar
The most pathetic effort by a series: FIA "GT1" World Championship
The most pathetic calendar by a series: FIA "GT1" World Championship
The most pathetic format by a series: FIA "GT1" World Championship
The most pathetic organizing body: SRO
The most pathetic series in terms of understanding public relations and media: IndyCar
The most pathetic series of the year overall: FIA Formula 2
Embarrasment of the year: Porsche Supercup race at Barcelona is cancelled literally minutes before the schedule start, grid girls already in place and TV broadcast underway
Saddest grid: ELMS Donington
Worst race: Dubai 24 hours
Worst event/race broadcaster: Dailymotion
Villeneuve Trophy: not winning the NNS race at Montreal

"Was it a chance you shouldn't have taken, should you have waited till later in the lap?"

"No I don't think so, because it was the very last lap."

Runners-up: Sergio Perez's late-season attempts to demonstrate he can get the results expected of a Mclaren driver, while still driving a Sauber; virtually everyone in the Moto3 class except wee Romano Fenati during the Spanish Grand Prix; every current GP2 driver who's ever been given the title "Promising".

Broadcasting coup of the yearThe BBC actually improving their line-up after the Sky mini-exodus, securing the predictably brilliant Ben Edwards and the less predictably so but no less brilliant Gary Anderson.Runner-up: Radio Le Mans's last-minute arrangement to commentate from the F1 booth at the WEC Interlagos round, when until then it looked like they'd have to call the race via Skype from Felipe Massa's dad's guest room.

Biggest disappointmentEvery national-level series in Europe sucked this year. Even BSB was flat.Runner-up: MotoGP's 1000cc engine capacity change. Just like 2006, they said! More torque, more sliding, more passing, they promised! There surely can't be too many fans who haven't lost all confidence in the Dorna/MSMA leadership by now.

Biggest and pleasantest surpriseParadoxically enough, Moto3. The best new racing series in the whole world since American Le Mans. Runner-up: Pastor Maldonado post-Spa

All eyes on the loserWill Power's mechanics and Takuma Sato's high-functioning asshattery aside, 2012 was the year of losing victoriously. And first among victorious losers was Fernando Alonso, who after the Brazilian Grand Prix gave a stare that could cut sheet metal.Runners-up: Casey Stoner crushing World Champion Jorge Lorenzo at his last Australian Grand Prix; the junior/intermediate classes trio of Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Gino Rea and Hafizh Syahrin at the Malaysian Grand Prix; Toyota's LMP programme, spending the first half of the year rescuing the new FIA World Endurance Championship's reputation after Peugeot's shock withdrawal, and the second half of it just generally kicking ass.

- Rain in Brazil was perfect! Seeing Vettle off made it even more interesting - strange to close the year in Brazil though.
- Spain... For a city course I thought it was pretty damn good!
- Sergio Perez was excellent!
- Maldanado's start at SPA was down right incredible!
- Lots of winners - especially at the start.
- Seeing Kimi finally win one.
- Despite all the crap going on with Lotus I think they faired well.
- Found out Williams is run by Franks daughter? That's cool!
- The Texas track was MUCH better then I anticipated.

Not so loved:

- Sort of was hoping MS would have won 2-3 races and been in the hunt.
- Wish Moldonado was more consistent in the positive column.
- 2/3 of tracks are getting old. The more they look the same the more we need tracks like Hockenheim back to break up the season a bit.
- Texas was a mess and frankly the race was not very interesting.
- Cost of hotels in Texas was ridiculous.
- Rules of the race in Texas was ridiculous - all the above kept us from going this year.

In all I am VERY happy to have re-found an interest in F1 again. I have been absent since 2002 so this was a very good season to jump back in. Lots of action, drivers winning races and so on.

I am looking very forward to next season!

Hopes for 2013:

- Perez and McLaren do well.
- Maldonado finds consistancy and puts Williams back in the top 3.
- Kimi keeps Lotus moving foraward and picks up more wins.
- I would have loved for Ferrari to hire someone I could cheer for but I guess I'll have to wait until 2014.

- Sort of was hoping MS would have won 2-3 races and been in the hunt.

Yeah, Mercedes's performance over the whole season registers as a huge disappointment for me. Until around Valencia seeing Schumacher and Rosberg battle near the front was thrilling. They both had a lot to prove. Too many breakdowns as well.

Glad to see you back on the wagon. My interest in F1 had been decreasing since 2009-ish but this year was a memorable and genuinely entertaining one.

- Season Finale 2012 in Brasil ending with a deserved Champion
- Kimi'S Comeback, did not really like him before but my opinion towards him has now completely changed.
- Unpredicatble Races in the beginning of the season.
- How engineers always manage to come up with new inventions to speed up the cars. (Coanda, RBR DDRS)
- Sauber and Williams performance in 2012, Nice to see them coming back
- Nico Hulkenberg, really impressed me, hope he will not end up as a Ferrari Puppet in 2013.
- Massas comeback in the second half of the season. Would be so nice to see what he could to if he would be allowed to.
Negative:

- Ferrari and Ferando Alonso, the biggest cheaters in the paddock, but also the biggest moaners.
- Paul Di Resta, much to overrated
- Crash Kids in the midfield, RG and PM may be fast, but they are the perfect example why young drivers need more time in cars.
- 2012 Spec Noses.
- Mercedes
- HRT, Caterham and Marussia, third year but still can't build cars that come near to the midfield.

Seeing Williams win another grand prix
Unpredictability of F1 in 2012
Exciting races far outnumbered the boring ones
Return of Kimi R- and that fantastic pit-car radio transmission in Abu Dhabi
IndyCar- best racing in donkeys years thanks to the new car/tyres/engines
IndyCar- Fontana/Texas- Indy Car oval racing as it should be- breathtaking
Brad Keslowski winning the NASCAR sprint cup
Proper coverage of GP2/GP3 on the Sky F1 channel- no more playing games with dear old Eurosports TV "schedule"
the new Austin F1 track- finally a Tilke track that isn't boring
Seb's comeback drives at Brazil and Abu Dhabi
Alonso for getting results that car didn't deserve at times
Sky's F1 channel
WTCC- good to see Huffy win the series
BMW winning on it's comeback to DTM
The final few laps of the GP2 feature race at Valencia
GP3 Monza- an amazing race watching Evans/Abt fighting for the title- lots of clean overtaking
Schumacher retiring for good

Disliked

IndyCar- the politics that saw them oust Randy Bernard
NASCAR- boring fuel saving races, and in general poor races on some tracks (how can they not overtake on ovals?)
Jeff Gordon at Phoenix- a totally arse move from a class act- very disappointing
the Tilke-dromes- step up Bahrain, India, Korea- boring tracks
BTCC- yawn- if you weren't in a Honda/MG you had no chance to win.
WTCC- dullsville watching 3 Chevrolets play follow my leader
Maldonado/Senna- didn't make enough of a car that should have finished more races than it did
Motors TV not showing Bathurst in 2012
Grosjean- too many crashes for a fast driver- you can't win the race on lap 1!
WSR- Frijns crashing into Bianchi to win the title- didn't realise Schumacher was racing in WSR this year

Vettel winning his third straight championship in a thrilling F1-season that was topped with an unbelivable finale.

The sore loser of the year

Ferrari management after Brazilian GP

The event of the year

Everything in V8 Supercar bar Abu Dhabi if I would have had the opportunity to go to any of them. Nürburgring 24 hour with crazy manufacturer competition on the best track of the year

Racing of the year

Almost anything in V8 Supercar, especially Bathurst. "Let's make racing a complete joke"

Italian Superstars. Ballast weights, 4WD vs RWD, Altering regulations. It had everything you expect from idiot thinking. The "I will get there but don't really give a damn but still I do. Just give me a proper pit crew and teach me some tyre management"

Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes and Shane van Gisbergen to New Zealand and Casey Stoner back to Australia. What happened?

The relaxed award of the year

Sebastian Vettel. Moved to the back of the grid? No worries, I have a drum kit. Ferrari spreading god knows what to get me out of balance. It's allright I have a Newey and a drum kit. The "Will I ever get there? No, probably not" award

Mark Webber almost looked on course to the best driver at Red Bull. But then the season continued and he didn't. Shared with Montoya success in NASCAR. Ok, he's won two races but they are nowhere now. Get it together!!

The Kurt Busch award - "How to destroy a career by being stupid"

Kurt Busch

Quote(s) of the year

More or less anything from NASCAR and especially Tony Steward - as long as they are not in the winners circle.

The split of the year

Swedish Touringcar racing saw one touring car series split into two before getting back together. But not until two seasons into one were utterly destroyed. Could also be named "We have learnt nothing from splits in other much larger racing series around the world" award

The zzzzzzzzz racing of the year

DTM and MotoGP, and let's throw in WTCC there and top with WRC. It could be better, it should be better. But it isn't better.

Really? Balance of performance and other artificial tweaking in that series is relatively similar to many other touring and sports car categories (unfortunately).

I know very little about the Superstars series but from what was reported of the season finale at Enna, the balance-of-performance idea sunk to a new low. Putting so much penalty weight on a championship contender's car that it was practically undriveable over the kerbs of your circuit's (many) chicanes, and his teammate suffered repeated equipment failures? That's as stupid/even stupider than the endless homologation fiascos that plagued touring car racing in the 1980s.

Also sounds similar to FIA GT1 in 2011, when Corvettes (which were already blowing up engines like mad due to the switch to spec ECUs, as well as suffering other issues) were given massive BoP penalties after just one race weekend, making them virtually uncompetitive for the rest of the season - Aston Martin on the other hand got huge weight break, despite not performing terribly bad during the opening weekend. And don't even mention the GT3 Corvette during that same season in FIA GT3...

He's already been mentioned, but Romain Dumas doing his best Hulk impression after his off avoiding a Porsche at the 1st chicane at Le Mans. ( Wouldn't have gone down too well with his bosses if he had hit it).

However, he has driven in many types of cars, in different series/ events this year and is a throwback to days past; when drivers would drive anything, anywhere. If it has 4 wheels and an engine- he'll drive it.

My incident of the year has to be the finish of the Good Sam 500 at Talladega.Nascar has a green/white/checker finish that was absolutely spectacular, right up until the very final corner. Then again it is Nascar, so I guess it was bound to happen.

I think my sore loser award goes to peterhansel , nearly a year on and still...

SPEED Energy Racing Transcript:

Robby Gordon talks about entering the 2013 Dakar Rally after one of his competitors makes a comment about him and his HUMMER

PETERHANSEL COMMENTING ON ROBBY GORDON ENTERING THE 2013 DAKAR RALLY:

“This is a cheater born, we are here to compete, not for show race, and this is not the circus, even if it pleased the audience.”
“We must fight on equal terms, Robby Gordon must comply with the rules. If this is the case, it is welcome. Otherwise. Not!”

PETERHANSEL IS NOT ONLY CALLING YOU A CHEATER BUT CALLING YOU A SHOWMAN RATHER THAN A RACER, HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THAT?

RG: I take that personal, the fact he is calling me a cheater or my team a cheater. We explained our system last year to A.S.O. at initial technical inspection and we did not change anything from that day of initial tech on our car until the day they saw our car, saying it wasn't legal. With all that said what Peterhansel needs to understand is this is the entertainment business and it is not just about racecars. If it was just about racecars we would all be driving diesel powered Mini’s and they would sound like a bunch of sewing machines.

Baltimore Grand Prix. i now realize how big a difference there is between oval races and street course circuits races , and must say i can see why each type of track has DEVOTED FANS that may not enjoy the other type.This race and all that went on in the paddock and pits and track (chicane creation) that weekend was a true eye opener.

KUDOS OF THE YEAR

1 the Indy car series . after how the 2011 season ended the entire circuit made sure Dan Wheldon was remembered in a quiet respectful way during the season in a manner that didnt detract from the competition of the drivers during the season.

WHERE DID HE COME FROM

1 Brad Kesolowski. Who had him in mind for a champsionship run at the beginning of 2012. Defining moment his saving of gas at Michigan that got him the win while others ran out.

SADDEST DEPARTURES

1 CHRIS ECONOMAKI irreplaceable

2 JERRY GRANT shouldve won the 1972 Indy 500

3 DAVID "SALT" WALTHER if not for that 1973 crash i feel his life would have been far different.

4 JERRY SCHILD who? many will say , but a top 10 at Darlington in a very brief nascar career. Noticed by me since we have/had exact same birthdate.( you mean you've never looked to see if you ever shared a birthday with a driver?? )

THINGS I NEED TO DO

1 Pay more attention to Formula 1 , but i gotta admit races in some of the countries look like they are being held on airport tarmacs.

2 Keep praying series still racing a majority of the time on dirt tracks find a way to higher interest and enjoy better ratings

- Texas was a mess and frankly the race was not very interesting.- Cost of hotels in Texas was ridiculous.- Rules of the race in Texas was ridiculous - all the above kept us from going this year.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you think Texas was a mess? I attended this year after a decade of going to Montreal each summer, and I thought it was great. It seemed very well organized and the track itself was incredibly accessible, I almost wish I didn't have grandstand seats because there were so many good general admissions spots. Are the rules you're referring to related to the long term deals they initially had for tickets? No argument there, but like I said, all you need is a GA pass and a comfy chair. I got lucky and had a friend put me up so I didn't deal with the hotel prices, but I did hear that they were jacked through the roof.

Alright, boys and girls, it's the end of the year and we haven't done a super end-of-the-year What Did You Like/What Didn't You Like thread. Jp set one up quite admirably last year but unfortunately he's out measuring some new ASSHATS so I'm stepping in. Happy New Year!

Race Drive of the YearLewis Hamilton at the Cowboy Hat Grand Prix of Texas. One of those contests -- like Michael and Mika at the Nurburgring in 1998 -- that makes you glad you follow Formula One. Shame that by that stage he was an irrelevancy in the championship chase.(Runner-up: Moto2's Marc Marquez at the Japanese Grand Prix -- last to within sight of the leaders in a few corners, then the real work began.)

Bowling Ball of the YearNo contest eh?Runner-up: MotoGP star Jonathan Rea's impressive effort on the last lap of race 2 at Donington.Honourable mention: 2012's eternal bowling pin, the Nissan Deltawing. Exhibit A, courtesy of Kazuki Nakajima, and Exhibit B, from the humble Porsche 997 (check out the description on Highcroft's video... "forced into a roll" ).

Untrue conspiracy theory of the yearPicture the scene. Courtesy of Pastor Maldonado, Team Williams have just won their first Grand Prix since 2004. But there's a problem -- you see, the car was highly, and I mean heavily, illegal. Frank pulls in all the top mechanics, gets Patrick Head up on Skype from his desert island, even flicks through The Art of War by Adam Parr, and together they formulate a desperate plan. If Charlie finds all that stuff we put in the car -- the 3.5 litre engine, the throttle-blown diffuser, the beryllium seat-warmer -- we are so screwed! A junior engineer of Loki-ish aspect coughs nervously, and speaks up: "How about we, er, just burn the garage down? There'll be no e-evidence left then. We can blame it on a K-K-KERS malfunction." Silence, then the kind of applause that's usually reserved for VC-recipients or royal pregnancies. The plan was completed and Maldonado sneaked his asterisk-of-asterisks into the record books.

Course, technically it was Bruno Senna's car in the garage that caught fire. But y'know, just throwin' it out there. Don't believe what the man tells you.

(Runners-up, because they were actually true: Indycar team owners conspire to remove series CEO Randy Bernard in favour of Tony George, Brian Barnhart and the legions of eternal night; F1 puts on a race in a Middle Eastern military pseudo-dictatorship amid firebombs and hunger strikes, just to collect their $48m fee; MotoGP owners Dorna buy the championship of Edwards, Fogarty and the Ducati 916 as a negotiating ploy against Honda Racing Corporation.)

Jawdropper of a bowel-loosener of a title finaleIndycar Series at Fontana. Aside from the three-hour day-to-night contest on the limits of adhesion/Indycar's low-downforce aero spec, with proven nutjobs Sato and Tagliani inhabiting the leading group, this race featured a team of Penske mechanics changing the whole rear end of Will Power's crashed Dallara, just so he could get back out and run the laps needed to take 2 points away from Ernesto Viso's stricken car.(Runners-up: F1's dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix; WSBK's Magny-Cours round, culminating Tom Sykes's unsuccessful -- just -- and deeply weird title bid.Honourable mention: Bianchi vs. Frijns at the last round of the World Series by Renault. If only because the number of people offering an opinion on the collision probably vastly outnumbered Eurosport's own viewing figures. If only we had a way of monetizing these malcontents.)

Jacques Villeneuve's Busy Year, in association with the Where Is Jacques Villeneuve? threadJanuary: Accuse Alain Prost of rigging the Trophee Andros ice racing series.June: Receive death threats from protesting Montreal students.Later in June: Receive death threats from fans of GoDaddy's web hosting service.August: Nearly win home town Nationwide race for Roger's NASCAR outfit.July-August: In the opposites-land of the Antipodes, have a totally uneventful stint in V8 Supercars filling in for Greg Murphy.

Part Two of Risil's awards are coming up later. In the meantime I advise you all to contribute to this thread so I don't look really unpopular or anything.